April 27, 2008

Daring Bakers: Cheesecake Pops

I woke up this morning and the first things I thought were 1- Why is my bed so comfortable? and 2- Why does my room smell like daffodils? After those first few seconds of foggy confusion passed I remembered that I was home for the weekend and that means a queen sized bed and fresh flowers from the garden by my bedside. It also means access to an ice cream maker and waffle iron and that sounds like a winning breakfast combination to me. I've already made two ice creams and a sorbet, (which will be revealed at a later date) so I set about making some wonderful cornmeal waffles (a Dorie recipe) with maple blueberry sauce and orange segments for breakfast. However, my waffle maker is not the most efficient machine ever, it only makes two waffles at a time and takes about 8 minutes to make those two. That means that once the batter is made, there's a lot of in between time while waiting for a whole batch of waffles to cook.

So I popped open the laptop and clicked over to Tastespotting, (an addictions of mine) and one of the first pictures I saw was a Daring Baker cheesecake pop. Uh oh, who posted April's challenge early? I checked the link to see who it was from and was surprised when it was none other than Tartelette. At this point I started to wonder if I had misread the posting date. Helene wouldn't do something stupid like posting a challenge early but I was sure that this month's challenge wasn't supposed to be up until the 30th. I clicked onto a few other Daring Baker websites and quickly realized that I was in the wrong and that if I didn't start typing, my post would be one of the late ones. Luckily I had already completed the challenge weeks ago, (which is somewhat shocking in and of itself as I'm generally the queen of procrastination) so all that was left to do was to slap together a post and do a little photo editing. But then I had to finish making waffles and once that was done I realized it was a gorgeous sunny day and I needed to go on a morel hunt, (more on that later too) so here I am, finally getting around to writing something about those adorable little treats on sticks.

So about the cheesecake pops: I made mine orange scented by mixing the zest of two oranges into the sugar before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. I used Wilton wafers to dip my cheesecake pops and they were really easy to work with. Speaking of the Wilton wafers, have to thank a certain Cream Puff for doing some of my shopping and bringing me the Wilton wafers as well as the lollypop sticks. Shortly after the challenge was announced I had emailed Ivonne, asking her if she knew where I could find both of those items and she told me about a place called Golda's Kitchen, a kitchen supply store in Toronto that I can't believe I had never heard of before. As luck would have it, Ivonne was also planning a visit to Golda's and asked me if I wanted her to pick anything up for me while she was there. I browsed the website and found way more goodies than I could afford. I decided to stick with what I needed for the challenge and just got the wafers and lollypop sticks, (and maybe some silver dragees for an as yet undetermined use).

Thanks Ivonne, they were much appreciated! I brought my completed pops to a potluck lunch and didn't return home with any, which is always a good sign. Cheesecake pops certainly make for a fun and whimsical display, but I'm not itching to make them again, they were messy and took forever! That's not a comment on the recipe, but just on the nature of cheesecake pops. They require multiple steps and quite a bit of time and don't fall under my usual slogan of "Go Big or Go Home." They were tasty and pretty though and something I had wanted to make ever since I saw Bakerella's Cake Pops so I'm glad I got a chance to make them. Big thanks to our hosts this month Deborah of Taste & Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms, I was very happy that they chose this recipe. (which can be found in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor). As per usual, you can check out a multitude of cheesecakes on sticks by visiting the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

These are SOOO cute! I'm trying to figure out what they make me think of but I can't come u p with it...maybe Alice in Wonderland? Great job...I didn't get to do this challenge b/c of lack of space in the freezer and lack of a reason. Yours are precious!

If it's any consolation, I came home from vacation yesterday and saw those pops all over tastespotting too. YIKES. I had made mine earlier in the month... so organized yet I had that 30th date in my head too. After a bit of scrambling, I finally had it posted last night. I hate being late for things.

I LOVE the psychedelic colors that you chose. That yellow really comes through nicely to make them look really cool.